The information contained in the study is of interest to all market participants affected by the payment behaviour of private individuals, most notably retailers, credit institutions, card issuers and, last but not least, the Deutsche Bundesbank itself. Players wishing to foster more innovation in the field of payments need to offer a genuine advantage over established schemes and procedures and, in particular, to heed users’ perceived security needs.

Estimates by the Bundesbank suggest that banknotes worth around €268 billion were in circulation in Germany in 2018. Of that amount, roughly 20% was used directly for transactions. The other, far larger share – somewhere in the region of €200 billion – was being hoarded, i.e. stored for an extended period of time by households and firms.

By international standards, cash continues to be a very popular means of payment in Germany. Even for larger purchases, customers in Germany tend to use cash more frequently than those in other countries. A new study provides indications of the reasons behind this behaviour.

In 2019, the Bundesbank achieved a net profit of 5.8 billion euros. After adjustment of the reserves, the net profit is 5.9 billion euros, the highest net profit since 2008, which the Bundesbank transferred in full to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The Bundesbank posted a profit of €1.0 billion for the 2016 financial year, compared with €3.2 billion in 2015. Owing to an allocation to the reserves, the remaining distributable profit amounted to €0.4 billion and was transferred in full today to the Federal Government pursuant to section 27 number 2 of the Bundesbank Act (Bundesbankgesetz).